Recent years have seen a great deal of development of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), known collectively as electric vehicles (EVs), and the popularity of such vehicles in the market is growing steadily.
A significant factor believed to hamper the wide-spread adoption of electric vehicles is their relatively short range compared to conventional ICE-powered vehicles. To some extent, the lack of range inherent in battery-powered vehicles is mitigated by range-extending technology such as hybrid vehicles, improved battery capacity, battery reserve facilities and battery swapping stations. However, the range that is achievable by the vehicle when under electric power is still considered to be unpredictable and this has bred a fear that the vehicle has insufficient range to reach its destination, thus stranding the user at the roadside. Termed ‘range anxiety’, it is believed that this fear causes reluctance on the part of the user to accept electric vehicles as a serious proposition alongside conventional ICE vehicles.
Range anxiety may be alleviated if the user is provided with an accurate indicator of the available range of the vehicle. It is against this context that the invention has been devised.